Table Of ContentBulgaria's
Synagogue
Poets:
The Kastoreans
Critical Edition
with Introduction and Commentary
J.
by Leon Weinberger
The UniversiTy of AlAbAmA Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Copyright © 1983 by leon J. Weinberger
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380
All rights reserved
manufactured in the United states of America
∞
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements
of American national standard for information science–Permanence of
Paper for Printed library materials, Ansi Z39.48-1984.
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
main entry under title:
shire ha-kodesh li-yehude Kashtoryah.
Title on added t.p.: bulgaria’s synagogue poets, the Kastoreans.
introd. also in english.
bibliography: p.
includes index.
1. Piyutim. 2. hebrew poetry— Greece. 3. hebrew poetry—Turkey.
4. hebrew poetry—balkan Peninsula. i. Weinberger, leon J. ii. Title:
bulgaria’s synagogue poets, the Kastoreans.
bm670.P5s546 1983 296.4 83-12735
isbn 978-0-8173-0182-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
To
SHOSHANA,
Canticles 2:2
Contents
HEBREW SECTION
Introduction 3
The Characteristics of the Kastorean Prayer Book 3
A. Kastorean Beliefs and Opinions 14
1. Practices in the Month of Elul and the Ten Days of
Repentance 14
2. On Prayers to Intermediaries 15
3. Messianic Expectations and 'Return to Zion' Movements 15
B. The Influence of the Hispanic Hebrew Poets on Kastorean
Prosody 17
C. Linguistic Innovations 18-19
Notes to the Introduction 20
Selections from the Kastorean Poets 20-162
The Uses of Metonymy in Kastorean Poetry 163-170
Index to the Poems 171
Bibliography 172-175
ENGLISH SECTION 1-6
Although there are signs ofJewish life in Bulgaria even in pre-Christian
times aswell as inthe laterByzantineand Slavic periods, littleis known
about the character of Jewish settlements in this region until the 11th
and 12th centuries. It is then that Jewish communities spring up in
Sofia, Nicopolis and Silistra and a Jewish writer, Simeon Seti produces
a novel in Greek which is translated into Bulgarian under the title
Stefanit i Ihrilati. From Kastoria in Macedonia, the strategic hub of the
Balkan world, there emerges the leader of the Rabbanite community in
Byzantium, Rabbi Tobias b. Eliezer, author of the Midrash Leqal} Tab
(written and revised in 1097-1108) on the Pentateuch, and the Jew Leo
Mung, a convert to Christianity and later Archbishop of Ochrida and
Primate of Bulgaria. The increase of Jewish communities in Bulgaria
began in earnest in the Second Bulgarian Empire under the rule of the
ambitious Assenide emperors who encouraged Jewish immigration into
their country in order to gain a commercial and industrial advantage
over their Dalmatian and Aegean rivals. Afurther increase in Bulgaria's
Jewish population occurred in the latter half of the 14th century with
the arrival of refugees from Hungary and Bavaria after their expulsion
from those countries in 1360 and 1376.1
Friction soon developed between the native Jewish settlers, followers
of the Romaniote ritual and the newcomers from the north, due, proba
bly, to the differing Romaniote marriage and divorce customs, such as
theirrefusal to acceptthe decree ofRabbenu Gershomb. Judah ofMainz
(11th century) banning the practice of polygamy. To deal with this
conflict a special assembly was called in 1376 to reinforce R. Gershom's
ban on polygamy and to address the several issues in dispute bythe two
parties. It was probably at this time that one Bulgarian Jewish commu
nity, the Kastoreans, decided to publish their own prayer-book accord
ing to the ritual in use in their synagogues and thereby preserve the
special character of their congregational life. A section of this prayer
book containing the services for the seventeenth day of Tammuz, the
ninth ofAb and the month ofElul has survived inthe Bodleian, Oxford,
Ms. # 1168. Kastoria, situated on the Via Egnatia, the old Roman
highway linkingDyrrachiumwithConstantinople had a sizeableJewish
population during the reign of the Assenides and could boast of at least
sixversatile scholars and poets, includingthe aforementioned R. Tobias
b. Eliezer; the scribe R. Mordecai b. Shabbetai ha-'Arukh (Makros),
(12th-13th centuries); R. Menal).em b. Elia, (12th-13th centuries); R. Elia
b. Abraham he-'Aluv, (12th-13th centuries); R. Abraham b. Jacob, (14th
century); and R. David b. Eliezer, (14th century), the leader of the
1
Bulgarian Romaniotes in Kastoria and the probable editor of the Kas
torean prayer-book.2
The representative selection of liturgical works by Kastorean poets of
the 11th through the 14th centuries published in this volume are taken
from the prayer-books (ma1)zarim) ofCandia (Crete), Corfu, Kaffa (inthe
Crimea), Kastoria and Romania as preserved in the manuscript collec
tions and printed editions at the Bodleian, Oxford; the Vatican; and the
Jewish Theological Seminary, New York. These liturgical poems are a
valuable resource for understanding Jewish life in Macedonia during
the First and Second Bulgarian Empires. Kastorean Jews, like their
co-religionists in northern Europe and in the western Mediterranean
region, followed closely the struggle between the Crusader Christians
and the Muslims for control of Palestine and saw in these events a
portent of the Messianic redemption. R. Tobias b. Eliezer, a contempo
rary ofthe FirstCrusade writes inhis Leqal} Tab (to Exodus 3:20) thathe
has "looked searchingly into our divine books and considered the
length of our exile" and concludes that in the year 1096 (the year when
the First Crusade began), "even as in the days of Egypt He will now
show us wonders."
R. Menal).em b. Elia laments over Jerusalem in the hands of the
Crusaders3 and rejoices at its reconquest by Saladin in 1187.4 It is likely
that this turn of events prompted R. Elia to proclaim in one of his
poems:
"Mounted on an ass he approaches
Bringing fresh forces to attack;
Fair and ruddy (he is), a paragon among ten thousand . . .
The time of redemption has been computed
Only a few years remain;
Now Edom will be consumed,
And (Jacob's) remnant will return again ...
The time of exile has elapsed
The rod of wickedness is broken
For Judah has prevailed ...
Behold Captain Michael
Alongside Captain Gabriel
And between them the redeemer Messiah;
Let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad."5
Judah al-I:Iarizi records in his Ta1)kemoni (#28, p. 245) that in 1190
following his conquest ofJerusalem, Saladin (Yllsuf Ibn Ayyllb) invited
the Jews to settle there since they had beenbarredfrom residence in the
city during the Crusader occupation. Saladin's conquest of Tiberias,
Hattin, Jerusalem and almost all of Palestine in his campaign of 1187
further intensified Jewish Messianic expectations as well as a yearning
to resettle the Holy Land. Solomon Ibn Verga in his Shebet Yehuda
(Wienered., p. 113)reports thatintheyear 1211 Rabbisfrom France and
England led more than 300 immigrants to Jerusalem where they were
2
warmlyreceived bythe SultanAbu-Bekr AI-Adl, the brother of Saladin.
When al-I:Iarizi visited Jerusalem in 1216 he was cheered at the sight of
the sizable Jewish settlement there (Tabkemoni, ibid.).
Saladin's tolerant policies toward Jewish settlement in Jerusalem are
also reflected in a liturgical work by the Kastorean poet R. Elia b.
Abraham he-'Aluv in which he urges his congregation to settle in the
Holy Land even as he warns them not to rely on the Bulgarian Emperor
whom he calls a "splintered reed" that will run into a man's hand and
pierce it if he leans upon it, (after Isaiah 36:6). He cautions the skeptics
that they will suffer the fate of Moses' spies (after Numbers 13:31) and
points to the victory of "Joseph (=YusufibnAyyub=Saladin) who now
governs the land" (after Genesis 42:6) and that "only he (Le. not the
Crusaders) rules the country and provides for the people" (cf. Genesis,
ibid.). The similarity of Saladin's name to that of Joseph son of the
Patriarch Jacob, viceroy of Egypt, did not elude the Kastoreans.6 The
intensity of the Messianic expectation is also evident in the works of R.
Mordecai b. Shabbetai ha-'Arukh who wishes to know the exact date of
the Messiah's arrival and of R. David b. Eliezer who is persuaded that
the period of the Messiah's "birth pangs" has already begun/
Coupled with this Messianic agitation in Kastorea is a considerable
preoccupation with Jewish mysticism, confirming G. Scholem's obser
vation that "Kabbalistic contemplation is a kind of individual anticipa
tion of eschatological messianism." Beginningwith R. Tobias b. Eliezer
(in his seliba, " 'Ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh") there is the type of speculation
associated with the Hekhalot literature and the use of divine names as
aids in making the mystical ascent to the celestial throne.8 The theme of
prophetic Kabbalism modelled after Abraham Abulafia is the subject of
Kastoria's R. Menal}.em b. Elia. In the latter's seliba " 'Aya1J.edkha
bemorah," he states that "the attainment of awe-inspiring prophecy is
dependent upon the proper articulation (of the letters of the alphabet)
byone seeking (to attainthis goal)," evenas he refers to the discipline of
placing (in imagination) the permuted and combined letters on the
threshold (of the Divine Throne) among the adoring angelic host. The
poet then closes with the revealing line: "God hearkens to the supplica
tor whose imagination prepares him and who, in his own eyes, consid
ers himself as if he did not exist and is about to die."
Meditation on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet provided for Abra
ham Abulafia the ideal object to aid the soul in becoming free from
preoccupation with its natural self and enabled it, in Abulafia's words,
"to untie the knots which bind it." The layers of meditation on the
alphabet include articulation (mivta), writing (miktav), and thought
(ma1J.shav). Byrenouncing his attachmentto the phenomenal world, the
individual proceeding on the steps of the mystic ladder is ultimately
able, with the aid of meditation on the letters of the Divine Name, to
attain prophetic inspiration. In describing the preparations for medita
tionand ecstacy, Abulafia, commentingontheverse (inAmos 4:12), "Be
prepared for thy God, 0 Israelite," writes: "Make thyself ready to direct
3
